Stanton dominates day of meeting and greeting

By BILL HUTCHINSON

Wednesday

May 30, 2007 at 3:10 AMMay 30, 2007 at 4:29 AM

No matter whom the city commissioners select for the job, Stanton is clearly the crowd favorite.

SARASOTA -- It was billed as an ensemble performance, but there was only one star in Tuesday's daylong meet-and-greet for the five final candidates under consideration for the job of Sarasota city manager.

The Susan Stanton Show has come to town, and no matter whom the city commissioners select today for the job, Stanton was clearly the crowd favorite, whether the crowd consisted of the two dozen TV reporters assembled at City Hall to record her every move or the 250 residents and community leaders who turned up at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall to have a look at the transgendered woman who has preoccupied the media since she was fired as Largo's city manager earlier this year.

"I came to have a look at her," said Sarasota resident Jencie Davis at the Van Wezel. Now 90, she has lived most of her life during a time when "you could never think there could be a thing like that, changing your sex; but, you know, like they say, 'to each his own.'"

Or "her own": Pronoun choices were an issue of some concern for the Van Wezel crowd. "Do I call him Susan or Mr. Stanton?" one woman asked.

There was no such confusion at City Hall, where the five finalists assembled for coffee and pastries at 8 a.m., before a morning of back-to-back private interviews with each of the city commissioners.

Assistants in the front office who have been dealing with the Stanton candidacy for more than a month now seem to have assumed a certain ho-hum attitude toward the transgender issue.

An anticipated barrage of e-mails and phone calls and protests of one sort or another never materialized.

Even a Christian broadcaster's suggestion last week that true believers should register their disapproval of Stanton's candidacy generated only 20 phone calls.

City Hall old-timers cite the great T-Back Controversy of more than 20 years ago -- a woman was arrested on Lido Beach for wearing a thong bathing suit, mayhem ensued -- as the benchmark for public protest, and the Stanton controversy, they say, does not even come close.

In today's age of personality-driven TV, however, Stanton commands attention, and lots of it.

'This is just silly'

At the lunch break following a morning of one-on-one interviews for the candidates with the commissioners, Stanton removed her suit jacket and her bra strap fell slightly on her upper arm.

The moment was commemorated with an explosion of camera clicks.

When the candidate was dragged away from her all-vegetable wrap for a quick word with one TV correspondent, the entire corps descended upon her en masse. "This," she said, "is just silly."

When it comes to media inquiries, however, Susan Stanton is a girl who cannot say no.

"I try to make myself available as much as possible," she explained. "For most people, a transgender person is not something you see every day. It's important for them to see that I'm not a freak, I'm not a pervert, I'm not a crossdresser. I'm just me."

Stanton's fellow candidates -- three men and a woman, whose visit to the ladies room attracted not a single camera -- seemed to accept the media attention on their competitor with only occasionally strained grace.

At one point, Robert Bartolotta, formerly the town manager of Jupiter, was blocked from his lunch by a wall of TV cameras, to which he reacted with a grin and a shrug.

"Fortunately, the process is about who's the best candidate for the job, not who gets the most publicity," said Patrick Salerno, currently the city manager of Sunrise. "If that were the case, there'd be no reason for any of the rest of us to be here."

Tour is cut short

After lunch, the candidates were escorted on a two-hour driving tour of Sarasota that ran too late to include an intended look at Westfield Mall. Stanton had a hair appointment on St. Armands Circle.

She arrived at the Van Wezel with a fresh "do" and a thumbs-up, and was once again set upon by the cameras in a crowd that included such local media figures as city Police Chief Peter Abbott, county School Superintendent Gary Norris, recent congressional candidate Christine Jennings, and real estate tycoon Michael Saunders, whom Stanton had not yet met and had assumed was male.

"The Bible says the world is going to be full of changes," said Jencie Davis. "Best thing to do is just adjust."

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